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002 • <br /> Page 2 <br /> November 22 , 2000 <br /> SCHOOL FACILITIES TO ACCOMMODATE NEW DEVELOPMENT BE CONSIDERED <br /> IN THE APPROVAL PROCESS ("the Ordinance" ) recommended for your <br /> consideration by the Orange County Board of Commissioners . The <br /> Board of Commissioners will present these documents for public <br /> comment at a public hearing scheduled for November 27, 2000 . The <br /> public hearing will begin at 7 :30 p.m. and be held in the Gordon <br /> Battle Courtroom in Hillsborough. <br /> The form of the MOU and the Ordinance are, for the most <br /> part, the same as was recommended by resolution of the Schools ' <br /> and Land Use Councils. The two documents differ from that <br /> recommended by the Schools and Land Use Councils in several <br /> important respects. This letter will explain those differences. <br /> As to the points of difference, the documents that are being <br /> transmitted here are in the form recommended by the planners, <br /> school administrators and attorneys when that group developed <br /> the documents and transmitted them to the Schools and Land Use <br /> Council for consideration. The recommendation coming from the <br /> Schools and Land Use Councils was submitted to the attorneys for <br /> final legal review. The comments received from our attorneys <br /> were consistent; their recommendation is reflected in the <br /> documents as they appear here. <br /> Afford-able Housincr <br /> The Ordinance and the MOU omit altogether consideration of <br /> affordable housing. It is not reasonable to think that the <br /> Ordinance and MOU can be sustained if they create an exception <br /> or an exemption for the certificates (CAPS) for affordable <br /> housing projects or affordable housing units. This is so because <br /> affordable housing impacts public school facilities in the same <br /> way that non-affordable housing does . Therefore any attempt to <br /> exempt affordable housing units or to reserve space in public <br /> schools for affordable housing projects or affordable housing <br /> units would put the program at risk of being determined to be <br /> unlawful . <br /> It is not contemplated by an adequate public schools <br /> facilities program that the tools, the Ordinances and the MOU, <br /> are growth-limiting devices. Rather, the chief objective of <br /> these tools is to provide a reasonable amount of time for the <br /> County as the fiscal "agent" and the schools as the education <br /> "agent" to respond to the impact of residential growth on the <br />